Pursuing Righteousness Psalm 1 (May 15th 2016)

All right, well, amen.

Hey, always good to have uh Chris uh with us.

Love that guy and appreciate uh his ministry.

Uh he does a lot of work behind the scenes, blessing uh our church and our campus uh big time.

Well, hey, as you uh as you get your Bibles open uh to uh Psalm 1, we're actually beginning a brand new series uh starting today uh in the Psalms.

And I know when you see Psalm 1, you're thinking, wow, are we doing all 150 of them?

It's gonna be a seriously long series.

Um well, no, we're not.

We're doing uh a bunch of them, and this uh this kind of series actually flows directly out of just my own personal uh time in the word.

I've been spending uh a good chunk of time, at least was in the last uh bunch of months, uh just spending some time in the uh uh in the word, in the Psalms.

And uh I just love them because they're so raw and honest.

Right?

They're so raw and so honest.

And so many of us, I think, kind of struggle with, you know, how do we approach the Lord and how how can we come to Him?

And where's the passion gone?

And and you know, all of those kinds of things.

And and I love the Psalms because they kind of stir that kind of thing up in me.

And so I'm really excited to uh to get into you, uh, into this with you um over the next uh little while and the next bunch of times that I preach uh between now and uh and the fall.

Uh so hey, hopefully you're in Psalm uh one already.

Um but hey, I got a question for you.

Uh can you remember the last time that you felt fulfilled?

Fulfilled.

You think of the last time that you kind of felt that, you experienced, you sensed that.

Uh for you, maybe uh you uh for you it's like a like a budding new romance, right?

And love is in the air, you know, it's spring and uh and all of that, and you just sense that that fulfillment, that joy.

You're on you're on cloud nine now because of that sweet person uh that the Lord has brought into your uh life.

Uh maybe for you it was like a recent family vacation, you know, and you just had this amazing time.

You uh went to Florida or something uh back in uh the winter time, and it was a great time, lots of memories made, and just like the perfect timing for you.

There's a sense of fulfillment uh with all of that.

Uh maybe for you it's a work project and you did just a really great job on that.

You crushed it, and it's like, yeah, I got some fulfillment from this.

Or uh perhaps it was something as simple as, hey, we went and checked out that new restaurant and uh had a killer meal, uh, and it was amazing, and that fulfillment that you get uh from food.

Okay, there are all different types of fulfillment for sure, and there's nothing quite like that sense of joy and happiness and satisfaction uh that you get.

Well, our uh our text today uses the word blessed.

Okay, it uses the word blessed, and it really carries uh a similar type meaning.

It refers to being satisfied, to being happy and content uh in the Lord.

And now, all that being said, uh a follow-up question for you.

Uh can you remember the last time that you felt blessed or fulfilled in the Lord?

Okay, can you think of the last time that you felt that?

Just like I'm loving this.

I love who the Lord is, and I love the closeness that I have with him, and there's a lot of joy and blessing in that.

Okay, again, it's it's different from the blessing, the fulfillment you might feel from like a filet mignon or something like that.

Right?

This is this is spiritual satisfaction.

All right, this is joy.

Again, blessing is the word in our text that that comes from having a close walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Well, well, Psalm 1 gets into this whole idea and shows us that it's the pursuit of righteousness.

It's the pursuit of righteousness that leads us to spiritual happiness, to being blessed.

So when we're sold out for the Lord and we're going for it, and and we're close to Him and all of those things, we're living for the Lord on His terms, you know, there's such a richness to the blessing and there's favor that God pours out on us.

Now, can you say that that describes you?

Can you say that that describes you here this morning and your family?

Well, this is what we're gonna be looking at here as we get into this.

So again, you've had lots of time.

You should be there by now.

Psalm 1, here we go.

Uh if you want to stand with me, actually, we're gonna honor uh the Lord as we read his word.

Okay, so let's do this.

Starting in verse 1, he says, Uh, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seed of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on this law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

God, we come before you right now, looking forward to uh diving into the Psalms here and and Lord, pressing more deeply into you, Lord.

And I pray that as we um unpack this idea of uh pursuing you, pursuing righteousness and the blessing that follows all of that, uh, Lord, would you speak to us here today?

Would you draw close?

Would you fall by your presence, by your spirit on your church, God, and encourage us and push us, correct us, Lord, where we need it.

But Lord, would you spur us on uh to greater works and more fruit, Lord, and a greater passion uh for the Lord, for your word, God.

That's what we ask for.

That's what we need, Lord.

I know there are people here who are dry today and just need that boost, Lord.

Need need you to break through the crust, that that hard layer in our hearts.

So, God, would you do that here, Lord?

We are at your mercy.

We pray that your spirit would lead every moment of this time together.

Lord, we pray it all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, you can grab a seat.

Hey, listen, somewhere, okay, somewhere uh deep within all of us, uh we are all searching for the blessed life.

Aren't we?

We're searching for that.

We want that, you know, that true satisfaction, that that true joy, that true uh fulfillment that we so badly want.

Now, now, first of all, before we get too far into this, there's something that we need to understand here, and uh, it's that at the end of the day, okay, on some level, um, all of us, okay, all of us are already ridiculously blessed.

Ridiculously blessed.

Do we understand that?

Do you do you get that?

Okay, whether or not whether or not you know Jesus Christ as Savior, every single person walking God's green earth is experiencing blessing at every single moment.

Every single moment.

Okay, I don't know if you've ever heard of uh of the Babylon Bee.

Have you has anyone here heard of this yet?

A couple hands up, a couple of fans.

I don't know if you you you're you're aware of the onion, you know, that the satirical news website.

Well, Babylon Bee is basically the Christian version of that, and it is hilarious.

Okay, it gets me going like all the time, and uh I love some of the articles that they have, like total sarcasm, but one of the very first ones uh that I saw um that got me was this.

This is just the head, uh, the heading of it, of this article.

Um What has God ever done for me?

asks man breathing air.

Right?

Like I think that perfectly, perfectly highlights what I'm what I'm getting at here.

Right?

The the audacity of anyone to be like, you know, when is the Lord gonna bless me?

You know, if here I am standing here just just waiting for the Lord to give me something good, and he's so stingy with it, and he never pours it out ever, right?

There's some there's some serious there's some serious ignorance, I think, in that.

Um because he is blessing us constantly.

And I think God's people even fall victim to that um at times.

Okay?

Um we need to understand that.

And uh what Psalm 1 really gets at here and and what our hearts just yearn for is really the special or the unique blessing that comes to those who know and love Jesus Christ.

All right?

So there is a general sense of blessing in which every single person experiences.

We're all breathing air, uh, and most of us have like, you know, food in our stomachs and a warm uh house to live in and go home to and all of that.

But there is such a thing as a special blessing that comes to those uh who know and pursue Jesus Christ.

And what we see here uh from this passage is that that special blessing comes when we're committed to pursuing righteousness, when we're committed to pursuing righteousness.

And so, what does this pursuit look like?

This pursuit of righteousness, godliness, what's that all about?

Well, here's the first thing here in your notes.

Okay, pursuing righteousness leads to blessing.

Okay, that's what we're gonna be hitting on.

Uh so I will choose my friends carefully.

Okay, I will choose my friends carefully.

Take a look at the text again, verse one.

Okay, verse one says, uh Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

Now, um notice there how the verse uh basically says, Um, you'll be blessed if you don't do these things.

Right, you see that?

You'll be blessed if you don't do these things.

Well, what things?

Well, essentially, uh hang out with the wrong crowd.

Okay, hang out with the wrong crowd.

You don't want to be doing that.

It says this, take a look again, it says, walks not in the counsel of the wicked, uh, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

Now, if I could sum kind of that whole thing up here, uh, it's really a warning to shield ourselves from the influence of people who could care less about God and his ways.

You understand that?

It's really important.

Now notice the three words there, the three kind of action words.

Uh, walks, stands, and sits.

Okay, you see that?

Uh it says, don't walk in their counsel, don't walk in their advice, where you're coming to them for wisdom and hey, how would you handle this life decision and and all of that kind of thing?

Don't don't go to them for that.

Don't don't stand in their way.

Don't don't uh uh the way being that the way that they approach life, right?

The way that they they handle uh life and decisions.

Don't don't sit in the seat of scoffers, it says.

So don't join that group where you're you sit down with them, you're you're in you're in the crew and and you become one of them and you adopt their ways.

It's saying don't do that kind of thing.

And it all reminded me, as I was looking at that this week, of 1 Corinthians 15, verse 33, and uh many of you would know it well, but it says, uh, do not be deceived.

1 Corinthians 15:33

Bad company ruins good morals.

Bad company ruins good morals.

Now, when when Christ followers uh foolishly align themselves with ungodly people, we inevitably become like them.

Do you realize that?

I think a lot of us kind of have this overinflated sense of how spiritually strong we are, and we think, no, I'm gonna rub off on all of them.

And that's that's rare.

It's really rare.

Typically what happens is they rub off on us, and uh, and we end up uh getting uh dragged down with all of that.

Uh we begin to compromise our character.

We lose the desire to pursue righteousness and pursue the Lord, and and all of that leads to this lack of blessing, right?

This this lack of richness uh of life that we so crave deep down in our hearts, and this this richness, this blessing that God so wants to pour out on us, He wants to lavish on us uh in our life.

And so, hey, it's crucial, it's crucial that we choose our friends carefully.

Okay, now listen real carefully here.

This is not a command, okay, this is not a command to isolate yourself from the world.

Okay, we know a lot of Christians, a lot of churches do that.

And they're like, no, we keep them all at arms, we don't we don't go near them and we won't we won't interact with them at all.

I mean, just last week we were talking about how we need to evangelize, right?

We need to go out into the world, we need to reach a lost world and and share the good news of Jesus Christ.

And we need to be developing relationships and getting to know them and figuring out how do they think so we can have some influence uh in their life.

And we need to love them well.

The Bible talks a lot about that.

Okay, so this verse that we're looking at here, it doesn't contradict any of that.

It doesn't at all.

What this is saying here is it's saying, be really careful who you allow into your inner circle.

Be really careful about that.

Be careful about who you allow to influence you and your beliefs and your life values and all of those things, beliefs and values, those always lead to some kind of action, don't they?

So be careful uh about all of that.

Again, there's a there's a certain susceptibility that we have to evil influence.

Right?

We'd be really wise to recognize that.

We really would.

Now, students, I want to speak to you for a second.

Students of all ages.

You might be junior high, you might be a little younger, you might be older, you might be in high school or or young adults.

It goes for all of you.

And uh, being in in youth ministry like I was for a while and and working with young adults, I saw time and time again students who would go off a cliff morally because of the kind of crowd that they got that they ran with.

Right?

And and and I saw it uh over and over again.

Now, and this is to like everybody uh here in the room, okay, I I know that when we think wrong crowd, we tend to go to like worst-case scenario.

Right?

We think like the party scene, we think criminals, especially parents, right?

That's that's where your mind goes.

I don't want my kids uh hanging out uh there, okay?

And sometimes for some of us, we let ourselves off the hook a little bit about our crowd.

Because, well, my crowd isn't doing that kind of thing.

So so therefore, they're great.

And they are a good influence on me and all of that.

Okay, but let's let's give this some some honest reflection here.

Okay, what kind of people do you surround yourself with?

It doesn't matter if you're young or you're old here.

What kind of people um do you run with?

Okay?

What's the general life philosophy of the people in your circle?

Okay, what is it?

And let's not be afraid to raise the bar here uh just a little bit.

Like maybe they're not leading you to a life of crime, right?

Like a string of bank robberies this week.

Okay, maybe that's not not your crew.

But do they push you towards Jesus Christ?

Do they they push you?

Do they encourage you?

Are they challenging you with all of that kind of thing?

Do they push you to pursue righteousness and seek Jesus above all else?

Okay, that that's the kind of person that we need in our inner circle.

Now, finding these kinds of people is easier said than done, isn't it?

And I know if you're a parent of a teenager here, um, that's probably at the top of your list of things to pray for.

Lord, bring my kids, godly friends.

Lord, would you do this?

Right?

They need it so bad.

That's why I'm so excited about the youth group that started up here.

Okay, whereas that thing grows, it's gonna be amazing.

Uh the students, the relationships uh that are built there.

Okay, so if you're if you're uh here today and you would say, you know what, I just don't have these kinds of people uh in my crowd, we need to ask the Lord for them.

Do you do that?

Do you pray and say, God, would you would you lead me to even just one person right now?

Somebody who encourages me, someone who is like-minded, someone who I can be honest with and be real with, and they can be real with me as well.

And there's gonna be some mutual ministry as we push each other towards the Lord.

These people can provide the influence that I need, and vice versa.

Okay, pray.

Ask the Lord for that.

And then for those of us who have those kinds of friends, how grateful are you for that?

How thankful are you for how the Lord has provided in that way?

Spend some time thanking him for it.

Because when you have great and godly friends, there's just nothing, nothing that compares to that.

That's just such a huge and immense blessing.

Here's the second thing.

Okay, pursuing righteousness leads to blessing.

So I'll immerse myself in God's ways.

I'll immerse myself in God's ways.

Take a look at verse two now.

It says this uh but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Now, hey, if you've been a Christ follower for uh any length of time uh at all, uh you know how we struggle with this, don't we?

We all do.

We all we all um find this to be uh a challenge.

That's that quality time spent with the Lord in his word, reading our Bibles, studying it, pressing into Him uh through all of that.

You know it if you're honest.

I mean, a common uh prayer request in any small group, in any church, is something along the lines of like, yeah, like I need you to pray for me because it's been a while since I've been in the Word.

Right?

And then I need to get back to this.

We all know that we need to be there, but we struggle.

Right?

And it's it's a challenge to make it a priority and to find the desire and all of that.

We really struggle to grab hold of what this verse says.

Take a look.

It says, delight, right?

Delight in the law of the Lord.

Okay, our our delight is often fleeting, isn't it?

Uh it feels like it's here one second and gone the next.

Sometimes it feels like it's just non-existent.

It's not even there.

Maybe it's been that way for uh for a long time, a long stretch.

Now, that phrase there, the the law of the Lord, now it's referring to the scriptures.

It's referring to the Bible, or even more generally, some of you have like a little number two there by the word.

You can look down at the bottom of your Bible.

It's referring even more generally to just the instruction of the Lord, the overall instruction that he gives us.

And the thrust of this verse here is that the truly blessed person, okay, the truly blessed person is the one who passionately immerses himself in God's ways and his instruction.

And we know that that God's ways, God's instruction for our lives, is found in this book.

Right within these pages.

He gave Bibles to us so that we would know him, so that we would understand ourselves, so that we would know what his will is for our lives, so that we would know the way to salvation.

Right?

This book is is that important.

Now, something that I'm kind of realizing the longer that that uh I walk with the Lord is that um the longer I know him, uh the more that I just have to be spending time in Scripture.

I just have to do it.

I notice now that even if I miss like a day, right, I just skip it, I sleep in, or I've got some earlier meeting and I miss it, or I don't read it uh in the evening after the kids have gone to bed, or whatever it is, I notice that when that's for me, when that happens to me, I'm just that much more prone to uh the enemy's attacks.

I'm that much more prone to having a bad mood, a bad attitude.

The desire that I have to follow the Lord, it just starts to dwindle and uh it starts to disappear.

I get more selfish, all of those kinds of things.

Hey, spending time in Scripture reading God's word is to invite God's presence.

It's to invite God's grace into our lives.

That's what it is.

And so if you're here this morning, I would imagine there's a good size, a good amount of people that are here in this position.

You know, you're struggling to read your Bible lately.

You're like, yeah, it's it's been a while.

You likely need to change your approach to all of this.

Have you done that?

You change your thinking.

Okay, okay.

What I don't want us to ever do is I don't I don't want us to have our focus be, I just need to read my Bible more.

Now you might be thinking, hold on a second.

Like you just said, we need to immerse ourselves in God's ways and we need to read our Bible more.

Okay, but that that's not the end goal.

That's not the end goal.

The end goal is to draw close to God.

Right?

The Bible is the way that we do that.

That's what we do.

The purpose of reading our Bible is nearness to our Savior.

Nearness to God is the destination.

Studying God's word is simply the vehicle that takes us there.

There is great richness, there is a great blessing and fulfillment when we immerse ourselves in the Lord's ways, when we seek to align everything about us with everything about Him.

That's where blessing is found.

And so for you today, it might be another recommitment.

Like, man, I've done so many of these.

Correct.

And you will do many, many more before the Lord brings you home.

Another recommitment where you're like, Lord, I gotta get back on this uh train.

Right?

I need to get back into the scriptures.

I need to make it a priority again.

I need to stop hitting the snooze bar, right?

I need to get up in the morning or I need to find that time alone sometime in the evening and spend time with you.

Another recommitment.

I'm not gonna let this slide.

I'm not gonna get away from it.

I need to be meditating on your truth, Lord.

Lord, would you please help me to do it?

By your grace, would you give me desire again?

Would you help me to see the necessity of this?

Humble me, Lord.

Okay, that's where blessing is found.

Okay, third thing now.

Pursuing righteousness leads to blessing.

And I will thrive as I grow stronger.

I will thrive as I grow stronger.

Take a look at verse 3.

This verse is so great, and I know many of you would know it well.

But it says this he's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither in all that he does.

This verse is such a phenomenal description of what a righteous person is like.

Great description.

It says he's like a tree.

Okay, so picture like this this big, strong, mature tree, and it's and it's healthy and it's it's got its roots planted down deep into the ground, and it's it's pl it's it's down by a water source, right?

Planted by streams of water, the verse says, where it's able to find nourishment, nourishment.

Even in a dry climate, which would have been uh what this picture was of this tree.

It's functioning properly.

It's healthy, again, it's bearing fruit in season.

It's not sick, it's not dying, it doesn't need to be chopped down, it doesn't need to be burned, none of that kind of stuff.

It says its leaf does not wither.

Its leaf does not wither.

Again, this is a picture of a Christ follower receiving blessing from the Lord that comes from pursuing righteousness.

The blessings there are rich.

It's basically a picture of a Christian in the sweet spot.

I love that.

They're thriving, they're growing stronger, they're not stale.

You know, just like a tree would every year as it grows.

They're gaining confidence, they're starting to realize their giftedness, and they're starting to use those giftedness.

Confidence in the Lord is developing and greater faith.

Okay, that their strength of character is shining through when difficult times come and the winds start to blow and the trials come into your life.

They're not falling down, they're not splitting and cracking.

No, they're standing strong and following hard after the Lord.

The tree is a great picture.

Would you say that you're like that tree?

Would you say that you're experiencing the blessing of thriving and growing stronger in your walk with Christ, like the tree here in verse 3?

Now, if you would admit here that, you know, I don't really think I am in that position.

Uh things haven't been going so great.

I've been struggling for whatever reason.

Um, question for you.

Are you willing to fight to get there?

Are you willing to fight for it?

Okay, if we're not thriving, um, if we're not receiving the blessings that we crave, um, it likely means that on some level we're not pursuing righteousness the way that we should be.

You know, something, something is getting in the way of that.

What's happening?

What's blocking the Lord's blessing in my life?

What's that area of my life that I'm not willing to face?

That thing that's just creeping in, and I can't seem to shake it, and it's become a huge problem, and it's it's kind of killing my soul and my zest for life and my zeal for the Lord.

Okay, so again, what are the areas of your life where you have been maybe compromising your integrity?

What is that sin that you've been playing around with, that you've been messing with?

Maybe you've grown a certain way in that area, but not as far as you should.

And you've kind of stopped at kind of this comfortable area where you get to kind of play with it a little bit and then sort of leave it aside.

Right?

And you're you're living according to your own standard, not according to the Lord's.

Listen, there's there's there's trouble when we're in that place.

There really is.

And if that's you, it it take take courage.

Have the courage that it takes to face those areas head on.

Invite somebody to be a to be accountable with, somebody that you can that you can share these things with.

Get it out into the open, get it out into the light where it dies.

And stop keeping it a secret.

Take out the the mop and bucket, so to speak, and and do some spring cleaning on your heart and on your mind and on your on your attitude and all of those things.

God is so gracious.

He is so gracious.

He wants to forgive you.

He wants to work in you, he wants to get you over this hump, over this difficulty, and back on track where you're receiving blessing and you're growing strong, you're thriving as you grow.

Okay, fourth thing.

Pursuing righteousness leads to blessing.

I will avoid personal destruction.

Personal destruction.

Okay, what Psalm 1 really does here is it actually compares and contrasts uh the difference between a righteous person and a wicked person.

And so this verse 4 here gets into uh what the wicked person looks like and what happens to them.

Verse 4, look at it.

It says, uh, the wicked are not so, okay, which meaning that they don't receive the kind of blessings that Christ's followers who are pursuing righteousness uh do receive.

Okay, they're not so.

Um It says, but they are like like chaff that the wind drives away.

Okay, a lot of us in this day and age, we don't really understand that um that mental picture.

Um it's kind of a farm illustration here, and what would happen as as farmers would would grow wheat is they would they would grab the kernels of wheat and they would put it kind of in a in a pan and they would shake it.

They would kind of throw it up in the air like that.

And as the as the as the wheat hit the hit the pan and it would it would break apart and the the chaff, like the skin around it, would separate.

It would come apart.

And so they would do this over and over again.

They would shake it in in like wind on a windy day.

And so the wind would blow away kind of that dead skin, right?

The the chaff.

And that's the picture uh that it's painting uh for us here.

Okay?

The wicked are like chaff that blow away.

Nothing good happens to them.

Okay, and then to keep going, it says, uh, therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment.

It's saying that the Lord, when the Lord comes to judge the wicked, they won't be able to stand under the weight and the intensity of the wrath of God.

Right?

They're gonna crumble, they're gonna, they're gonna fall.

Okay, those who trust in Christ's righteousness, we will be able to stand.

Not because of us, but because of Him.

Because we're not trusting any longer in our own flawed righteousness, because it's been corrupted, it's it's it's wrecked, our our our sin has been forgiven, it has been washed away, and we're now trusting in Christ's goodness, his righteousness, his perfection, which has become our own.

That is the reason that we can stand in the judgment.

It's because of him, because of what he has accomplished.

He goes on now, verse 5.

He says, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

Okay, so those who have have not repented of their sin and trusted the Lord Jesus won't be counted among the congregation of the righteous, because their unforgiven sin disqualifies them from being counted among the same crew as the church, as Christians.

Okay, now jump down uh to the very last um sentence there uh in Psalm 1 6b.

It says, But the way of the wicked will perish.

The way of the wicked will perish.

Now, what this is all making hopefully crystal clear to all of us here is that um what the unsaved, okay, what they get or what they receive for a life committed to unrighteousness and ungodliness is judgment, death, and and separation from God for eternity.

In other words, the righteous, okay, those who have trusted in Christ by grace through faith, it's a gift, it's unearned.

Those of us who have done that, we receive blessing upon blessing.

Grace upon grace, John says.

Whereas the wicked and the unrighteous, they receive personal destruction.

It's what they've earned.

It's what they deserve.

Now, do you ever spend time thinking about this?

Do you ever spend time thanking the Lord for what he has spared you from?

Thanking the Lord for what he has caused you and allowed you to be able to avoid.

There's no destruction waiting for us.

There's nothing but good waiting for us.

It's gonna be blessing, it's gonna be eternal life, there's gonna be no more sin, no more sickness, no more dying.

It's shocking when you think about it.

So do you?

Do you allow your hearts to be flooded with thanksgiving?

Lord, Lord, thank you for what you have done.

Lord, I don't deserve it.

I still don't deserve it.

I never will deserve it.

It is a gift that I receive by grace.

God, I want to worship you and praise you forevermore.

I mean, how good is the Lord to spare us?

How undeserving are we of all of it?

And listen, if you're sitting here uh this morning and you you don't know Jesus Christ as Savior, please consider.

I know it's not easy, but please consider what the scriptures say you are heading for.

Please consider that.

It's personal destruction for eternity.

Do I love saying that?

Not exactly.

But but we need to be clear about this.

If you do not know Christ as Savior, if he has not forgiven you of your sin, you have not received him into your life, that's where you're going.

It said, think about today what Jesus has done for you.

He went to the cross, he went to satisfy God's wrath.

God poured it all out on him instead of you.

Jesus in my place is something that we often say.

And for you to receive forgiveness, for you to receive righteousness and have your unrighteousness taken care of, forgiven, removed.

It's believing that what Jesus Christ did on the cross was enough to secure your salvation, to fix the mess that exists between you and God.

Would you do that today?

I plead with you.

Do it.

And it's as simple as just admitting your sin before the Lord.

You don't have to have any kind of fancy prayer.

You don't have to say these, thou's and whatever.

You don't have to say that kind of stuff.

Just admit it.

Honestly.

Lord, I need you.

I have sinned.

My sin is against you.

Would you be my Savior?

If you do that and you mean it, you are now a Christian.

You're a follower of Jesus Christ, and He's gonna do amazing things in you.

He's gonna transform your heart.

He's gonna He's gonna change you.

He's gonna make you new.

He's got heaven waiting for you for eternity.

It's awesome.

You get to avoid all of that destruction that happens when we die at the end of this life, still in our sin.

Now, church, again, think about what God has spared you from.

Think about it.

When you do that, when you when you not just like fleeting thoughts here and there, not just like in the two seconds that we're talking about this right now, but when you take some time to consider deeply the weight of all of this, it will bring such perspective into your life.

Right?

You'll start to realize, man, the Lord has blessed me.

Like the Lord is doing so much.

And I'm so grateful.

It'll fill you with a new desire to pursue him and to live for him with everything that you've got.

Okay, last thing here.

Pursuing righteousness leads to blessing.

And I will gain intimacy with God.

I will gain intimacy with him.

Just take a look at the first part there of verse 6, the first line.

It says this for the Lord knows the way of the righteous.

He knows the way of the righteous.

Now that word uh knows there, uh that means a lot more than just, hey, he's aware of it.

Right?

He's aware of the ways of the righteous because he's also aware of the ways of the unrighteous, isn't he?

So it means something more uh deeper than that.

It means that he knows with affection and approval.

He approves of us, which is amazing to think about.

It means that when you seek after righteousness as a Christ follower, he delights in you.

Do you know that?

He delights in you.

Now, I want to be really clear about this.

This took me a long time to kind of wrap my mind around, and I'm still trying to figure it out.

Okay?

But but delight is different than love.

Do you understand that?

God's love for us is constant.

Okay, God, God loves it.

The moment that you get saved, his love is poured out on you, and that never changes.

Do you realize that?

I I love the line.

I can't remember who said it or where I first heard it.

Um, but God uh could never love you any more or any less than he does right now.

Right now.

Do you let that sink in a little bit?

That's kind of mind-blowing.

It doesn't matter how you end up living the rest of this afternoon.

Right?

If you go and get caught up in sin and then mess up, it doesn't diminish his love for you.

If you go and just read like all 150 Psalms this afternoon, it's not gonna make God be like, wow, now I really love that person.

Right?

It doesn't, his love is constant no matter what.

It's not dependent on our performance, it's not dependent on our uh behavior.

Okay, his love remains constantly.

Here's the thing: it's his delight that can change.

You aware of that?

It's his delight.

Listen, it is absolutely possible for Christ's followers to have 100% of God's love, which we all do all the time, yet have him not delight in you because of some kind of sin in your life that's that's displeasing to him.

Okay, it's kind of like being a parent.

If you're a parent, it's it's a little bit more easy to understand this, maybe.

You know, as a parent, do you love your kids?

Of course.

Your heart aches for them.

You love them so much, no matter what, right?

They're punks, right?

They're doing things that that kind of tick you off and and mess with you and all of that, right?

Like the psychological warfare that happens as teenagers.

I can't wait for that.

But they do those kinds of things, don't they?

But you love them every step of the way.

That never wavers.

Your delight in them might, though.

Right?

You're because you're upset.

Right?

That maybe they're ticking you off, or maybe the other side of it, they've done something that just makes you so proud.

And you're delighting them in them in that moment.

But what God delighting in us and and us in him really gets at here is intimacy.

He gets at intimacy.

He knows us in this close and familiar kind of way, uh, where he's working in us, in our hearts, to transform us tenderly, encouraging us and prodding us along in our walk and answering our prayer and moving us ahead step by step.

Okay, when we pursue a righteous life, we gain intimacy with the Lord.

Now, all kinds of people these days, all kinds of people are uh terrified, terrified by the idea of intimacy.

Right?

We're terrified by it.

I mean, how many of us we keep loved ones at a distance?

Right?

I I I don't really wanna I don't want to let you in, and and and so many people are terrified of commitment, right?

I I I don't want to do that, and I don't want to get too involved.

Now, all of it, if you if you boil it right down, is is a result of the fall.

Right?

It's a result of the sin that is that has warped our our hearts.

Intimacy is one of those things that just freaks us out, right?

To be known, I mean, I mean, really known by somebody, like it rattles us.

I don't know if I'm ready for that.

Because I think somewhere deep down within the core of kind of who we are as people, we believe that if if somebody really knows us, okay, they they know the gritty, dark areas, they know all of that, they're gonna reject us.

That's what we think.

And which would leave us like even more damaged and even more hurt.

And so we just keep putting walls up and keep keeping people away.

Hey, we do this with the Lord too.

What the Bible encourages us with over and over again, and as we will learn as we grow more in Christ, is that that God knows us more intimately than we could ever know anybody.

You know, the whole soulmate thing that we think about and talk about, the Lord is like, he goes way beyond that.

Okay, he knows us, he knows our flaws, he knows the secrets that we don't want to face.

He knows our pain, he knows the ugly, he knows all of it.

And he loves us.

He loves us anyways.

There's zero rejection.

Listen carefully here.

Okay, pursuing righteousness leads to the blessing of intimacy with God.

And it's an intimacy that we will grow to love.

We will grow to love it if we allow that to happen.

We'll grow to not be afraid of the fact that he knows us better than we know ourselves.

We grow to rest, right, and have peace, satisfied in the knowledge that he knows us on a deep and intimate level and yet loves us as a prized possession, right?

A father's love.

That's how God approaches us.

And I don't know, but it might be the greatest blessing of our salvation.

That the God of the universe, the God that created everything, wants to be like this with us.

Wow.

So hey, allow the Lord in.

Allow him in.

If you're struggling with doubt and and fears, I mean, we all are on some level, I would encourage you, invite the Lord into that.

Okay, it'll probably be uncomfortable at first, but but soon enough it'll be replaced with the joy and blessing of God being near you and healing you and doing a great work in you.

And I would really challenge you to take some time.

You know, I often say that, don't I?

But but we need to do that.

We need to reflect, we need to meditate on these things, we need to think about it and think about how am I doing with all of this?

You know, are you experiencing the fulfillment, the blessing that comes from the Lord?

You know, or what are some of the areas that you need to face head on?

You know, I'm I'm done with ignoring this, I'm done with pretending it doesn't exist, I'm done with covering it up.

The Lord sees through all of it.

There might even be people in my life who see through all of it as well.

I want to ensure that nothing's gonna get in the way of this, nothing is gonna block any more intimacy with my God and with my Savior.

I want to pray for you.

Uh, the worship team uh is gonna come.

We're gonna take some time to do uh communion as well and reflect more on the gospel and what the Lord uh has done for us.

And so I would continue to allow this stuff to sink in and pray it into your souls, pray it into your hearts, uh that you would grow to know and love him more.

Join me as we pray.

God, we do thank you, God, for uh for being a Lord who lavishes blessing on us.

Lord, I pray for anybody who is in that position of, you know, when is the Lord gonna bless me?

I wish I would see something.

Lord, I pray that you would change our perspective so that we would see all the different ways that you were already blessing us.

And Lord, I pray that those special, unique, amazing blessings that you have reserved for your church, that you have reserved for those who are pursuing righteousness, Lord, I pray that we would go after those.

Lord, I pray that you would be so gracious to grant us those things.

Lord, that you would grant us yourself.

Lord, it's intimacy that we need so desperately.

And that's in many times, and in many instances and circumstances, the thing that we fear the most.

God, would you give us courage?

Would you break through that?

Lord, I pray that you would continue to grow your church in depth.

Lord, I pray that we would become more like you.

I pray that you would be pleased.

You would delight in us, Lord, as we pursue you and all that you have in store.

We pray all of it in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.